Easter Service
Our church had an outdoor Easter morning service I was looking forward to all week. It was a beautiful morning that started with children singing a worship song. This was followed by several traditional Easter songs like Crown Him with Many Crowns. That’s a favorite of mine and I still had the song in my head as I was falling asleep that night. We had sat down at 9:45, and the service started at 10:15. By 11am, Matthew was thoroughly restless and wanted to leave.
I took him towards the back of the outdoor area and there happened to be a great number of children running around on the grass area, playing at the decorative fountain and climbing and and getting into everything from rocks, to stairs, to dirt. This was fun momentarily, but after another 30 minutes, I wanted to sit down again and listen to the sermon. After all, it was Easter Sunday and the pastor had been preparing his sermon all week in anticipation for honoring the resurrection of Jesus this day. Unfortunately, Matthew would simply not sit still. Both Jenn and I grew tired of chasing him all over the community center park. He had received one spanking already and the thought of turning Easter morning into a spanking session was not very attractive. So we reluctantly headed home.
I was mildly frustrated that Matthew would not sit still. I began to think that we need to tighten up discipline on him so that he will sit still during a service. Jenn disagreed and we had a bit of tension on that subject. But it seemed that we were not the only parents struggling. After all, the area they chose to have the service was a very cool outdoor community center and park that looked like a playground for kids. It’s like placing kids in Disneyland and telling them to sit still. Normally on Sundays the toddlers are in playrooms where they play with toys, hear stories and eat snacks while the parents are in the service. I suppose it is a bit unrealistic to expect Matthew is going to adapt to sitting through a sermon without every having tried to do so previously.
There were parents scatter all over the place. Several parents were even in their cars with their kids. There was even a parent that happened to be leaving at the same time we were leaving. Next year, we may either change our expectations and expect Matthew to play in the back with other kids. Or we will try to leave him with my parents that morning.
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